Thu May 22, 2008 at 10:58:26 AM EDT
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The Asbury Park Press is at it again. When news broke that the Keansburg school Superintendent was awarded an exorbitant retirement package (almost $750,000), they reflexively said to "Blame Trenton for fat package". It's another blindly ignorant screed from an editorial board concerned more with partisan politics and less with the truth.The only thing more disgraceful than the retirement package awarded outgoing Keansburg school Superintendent Barbara Trzeszkowski was the call by Assemblyman and state Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan, D-Union, Wednesday for the state attorney general to investigate the "crime against New Jersey taxpayers."
Cryan's right. It was a crime. But Cryan, his colleagues in the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Gov. Corzine have all been complicit.
Trzeszkowski, 60, took what the system allowed - a $740,926 retirement package that included a $556,290 severance payment. The package also included a $170,137 payout for 235 unused sick days - computed on the basis of her hourly rate at retirement, not the rate at the time the sick days were accumulated - and $14,490 for 20 unused vacation days. She also is eligible for a six-figure annual pension and generous taxpayer-supported health benefits. Multiply that out by the post-retirement life expectancy of a 60-year-old female.
It's shameful but hardly surprising that Cryan, who is chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, would try to deflect blame for this latest affront to taxpayers on Trzeszkowski and the school board that negotiated the terms with her. Corzine and the Legislature were well aware of the pension and benefit abuses perpetrated by school superintendents, which were exposed in a scathing 2006 State Commission of Investigation report. The report's recommended reforms were largely ignored by lawmakers. The bottom line is that the APP editorial board doesn't know what they are talking about.
To them this is the fault of Democrats because....well, because they simply don't like Democrats. Nevermind that control of the legislature has traded hands multiple times over the last 38 years. Nevermind that the woman getting this absurd retirement package is a Republican. Nevermind that the attorney for the Keansburg board of education who surely signed off on this -- John O. Bennett 3rd -- is a Republican and actually served in the legislature where he could have addressed the issue if he wanted. Nevermind that the legislature did recently (2007) pass legislation to cap sick and vacation leave (S17): Notwithstanding any law, rule or regulation to the contrary, a board of education, or an agency or instrumentality thereof, shall not pay supplemental compensation to any officer or employee for accumulated unused sick leave in an amount in excess of $15,000... The problem - and it's admittedly a big one - is that the law grandfathered in those already with negotiated contracts, so it doesn't seem to apply to Trzeskowski. But to suggest the legislature has done nothing to address the issue is either ignorant, dishonest or both. None of these things matter to the APP because it doesn't fit in to their narrow agenda. But that's par for the course for the Asbury Park Partisan. |
| Juan Melli :: Asbury Park Partisan strikes again |
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